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The FHM highlights the individual stories of 25 Holocaust Survivors
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June 25, 2017 [St. Petersburg, FL] – The Florida Holocaust Museum (The FHM) has partnered with Eckerd College to release a 25th Anniversary oral history series titled “25 Survivors, 25 Stories… Celebrating 25 Years!”
Over the next 25 months, the Museum’s oral history series will feature a different Holocaust Survivor on the 25th of every month. Each Survivor brings to the series an individual voice that enlivens our understanding of the Holocaust; the war’s effects on individuals, families, and communities dispersed across the world; and its reverberations into the present moment.
The fourth story was released this morning and features Holocaust Survivor Ruth Lebowitz. An excerpt from the piece is as follows:
One of the first instances of antisemitic persecution that Ruth remembers concerns something her sister reported. A first-grade student at a Hebrew day school, her sister witnessed the destruction of their synagogue.
“It was a beautiful, large synagogue,” Ruth recalls, “and one day when [my sister] got there, she saw that it was burning down because the Nazis were burning it down. And she said that the walls were there but the roof was all gone.” Her sister, she told us, would never forget the way the sky looked that day. “There were books burning in the courtyard and her teacher, who was the rabbi, was being dragged down by the Nazis and he was all bloodied. It was really horrible.”
After the burning of the synagogue, her sister and other children in the area had to attend school secretly in an abandoned aircraft hangar…
To read Ruth’s story in its entirety, please visit: https://www.thefhm.org/survivor-stories/story-4-ruth-lebowitz.
Upcoming 25th Anniversary Programs and Events
In the coming months, The FHM will present numerous 25th Anniversary celebratory programs, events, and exhibitions, along with its daily educational and outreach efforts.
To learn more about The FHM’s upcoming 25th Anniversary events and exhibitions, visit the Museum online at www.TheFHM.org/25th.
The Florida Holocaust Museum is located at 55 5th Street S, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.
About The Florida Holocaust Museum
2017 marks a monumental milestone for The Florida Holocaust Museum (The FHM) as the Museum celebrates its 25th Anniversary. One of the largest Holocaust museums in the country, and one of three nationally accredited Holocaust museums, The FHM honors the memory of millions of men, women and children who suffered of died in the Holocaust. The FHM is dedicated to teaching members of all races and cultures the inherent worth and dignity of human life in order to prevent future genocides. For additional information, please visit www.TheFHM.org.
Photos and credits
 Ruth Lebowitz and her siblings in Germany. L to R: Eva, Carl, and Ruth
Photo credit: Eckerd College, courtesy of Ruth Lebowitz.
 Ruth Lebowitz’s father, Bruno Spingarn in Germany.
Photo credit: Eckerd College, courtesy of Ruth Lebowski.
 Ruth Lebowitz in 2017.
Photo credit: Eckerd College.
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